Usually thought of as a living fossil, the Chambered Nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) has been on the earth much longer than any fish. A relative of the squid and octopus, the Chambered Nautilus uses jet propulsion to zip around the ocean at high speeds (although backwards). Unlike the other cephalopods, She lives in a shell, and has up to ninety tentacles. Moreover, the Chambered Nautilus can live to be twenty years old, an unusually long life-span for a cephalopod. (Most only have life spans of three to five years.) 

Living in the depths of the sea, the Chambered Nautilus migrates nightly up the water’s surface. At night, She hunts along the coral reefs. Exploring with her beak, the Chambered Nautilus will find a tasty crab, fish, or shrimp to feast on. 

The Chambered Nautilus is best known for her pearly shell of many chambers. Her beautiful shell is in such high demand by humans that She is in danger of extinction. The spiral chambers grow as the Chambered Nautilus does, with each new chamber larger than the previous one. Moving into the new chamber, She seals off the previous one. The chambers are connected by a tube to aid in keeping Her buoyant. Because She lives in the outer most chamber, the older smaller chambers contain an argon-nitrogen gas mixture or a liquid saline solution. The Chambered Nautilus can change the ratio of liquid to gas in her chambers like a submarine does with its dive tanks. She rises and sinks in the ocean in this manner. 

In his poem, “The Chambered Nautilus,” (Note 1) Oliver Wendell Homes alluded to this mollusk guiding spiritual evolution. As She grows, the Chambered Nautilus moves to even larger rooms. Like Her, the human soul moves into a “temple more vast.” Unable to stay where it is, the soul continues to grow, finally uniting with the cosmos. 

The spiral shell of the Chambered Nautilus represents the Golden Mean (Ratio). An aspect of Sacred Geometry, the Golden Mean (Phi) is the ratio of the larger piece to the smaller piece as the larger piece to the whole. (Note 2) The Golden Mean is defined as “When, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the lesser. “ This creates harmony by uniting the different parts of the whole, while each part keeps its own identity. This represents the ideal balance and universal harmony.  

The Chambered Nautilus beckons people to know mysteries of the universe. An ancient being, She demonstrates the building blocks of the cosmos. Meditate on her shell and be initiated into Sacred Geometry, and learn the patterns of the whole.

 Note 1:

The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,—
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,—
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—

 Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

Note 2. It is A equals 1.00 which equals B plus C. B equals 0.618, and C equals 0.382. A divided by B equals B divided by C. This ratio is 1.619.